In addition, they wrote, “several days prior to the first test, OPM did not have the capability to email a distribution list of this scale. Acquiring such a capability securely and in compliance with federal cybersecurity, privacy, and procurement laws would likely not have been possible in such a short timeframe.”
Connelly and Brown added that “compounding our concerns, other reports suggest that allies of Elon Musk recently installed at OPM have revoked senior career employee access to OPM computer systems containing extremely sensitive information, including the dates of birth, Social Security numbers, home addresses, pay grades, and appraisals of millions of government workers.”
At best, the letter stated, the Trump administration’s actions at OPM to date “demonstrate gross negligence, severe incompetence, and a chaotic disregard for the security of our public. At worst, we fear that Trump Administration officials know full well that their actions threaten to break our government and put our citizens at risk of foreign adversaries like China and Russia gaining access to our sensitive data.”
